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Topic: Flavor of sauce goes away after bake (Read 4209 times)

I'm using Classico ground tomatoes while baking ny pies in my home oven. Before the bake my sauce is tasty both sweet and salty. After my back for some reason the sauce is so bland. I thought about adding more salt but to taste it would be salty.

28oz can

1tbsp basil1tbsp evoo1tsp pepper1tsp salt1tsp sugar

Maybe it's just me but the flavor I get before is so much stronger then after the bake.

Thanks Norma. I've read all the references you've sent me. Still can't figure out a reason, I do not cook my sauce in advance, I use oil, so I'm trying to pinpoint an exact reason. Maybe I need to add more salt but my sauce before it goes on the pie is already salty to taste.

Gin, if your sauce needs salt after the bake, perhaps the taste before the bake is misleading? I sprinkle a bit of salt on top of the sauce when dressing my pies, even tho the sauce tastes fine on it's own before bake. The MAGIC of cooking!Do. An experiment next time, add a bit of salt to the pie as you dress it. You may like the result.

try going a lot lighter on the basil if it is dried. Once a lot of herbs get added it dimishes the the tang of the tomato to my taste buds. I don't add any salt, pepper, or sugar. If you taste the sauce right after you mix it all it will still retain most of the original tomato flavor but once it sits and or is cooked all the other stuff blends in. The key is to find what works for you. You can read volumes about what are the "best" practices but your taste buds should be the final word. Keep experimenting. Most people lack this quality. They want to read a tried and true thing and reproduce it. I prefer to experiment and find my own masterpiece I use 7/11 tomatoes and for me they need no salt, sugar, or pepper. I do add a bit of fresh crushed garlic, small amounts of dried basil, oregano, and olive oil. I use less than a tablespoon of basil in a 6 pound can and grate DOP Pecorino Romano into the sauce. Walter

I'm much like @waltertore, go easy on spices. You mentioned you're using Classico's, there is absolutely no reason you would need any sugar in those tomatoes, they are already sweet. Cheese contains a large amount of salt, so I never use salt in tomatoes. I like oregano in my NY style sauce and a little finely grated fresh garlic, but you have to find the balance that works for you. Basil can overpower sauce, i find that canned tomatoes with a basil leaf added are often too strong for my liking. I prefer to finish my pizza with fresh basil leaves added post bake. No magic formulas, you have to experiment and create your own.

Eating hot (temp) foods makes it harder to taste subtleties. Do you notice the same after the pizza cools? Also, have you considered how the sauce is competing with other flavors on the pizza?

This thread is a good indicator of the vast difference in personal taste. I for example always use salt in my sauce and sometimes sugar if needed. I also forgot there was such a thing as dried basil because think it tastes like...

It doesn't have to follow that the Classico tomatoes will become pastelike after baking. That condition might follow if the pizza is baked too long, or it gets too much top heat, or the amount of the sauce is too little and it dries out. In other words, there may be reasons independent of the tomatoes themselves.

The ground are a little on the "thin" side, you may need to use more, and it may well be drying out during cooking. The crushed are chunkier and I prefer them over the ground. Sometimes the crushed will be a bite watery, I like to run then through some sort of strainer to get rid of a little of the excess liquid. If you don't find Classico's to your liking, give Sclafani crushed tomatoes a try. They are much thicker and taste great, but they aren't available at Walmart and they aren't on sale for a buck!

Please keep in mind that, unless you're using a rather salty topping, the sauce is the vehicle that delivers most of the saltiness to the pie. I always make my tomatoes saltier than they need to be when they're alone. The amount is surprising. On the finished pie, it's perfect.

The ground are a little on the "thin" side, you may need to use more, and it may well be drying out during cooking. The crushed are chunkier and I prefer them over the ground. Sometimes the crushed will be a bite watery, I like to run then through some sort of strainer to get rid of a little of the excess liquid. If you don't find Classico's to your liking, give Sclafani crushed tomatoes a try. They are much thicker and taste great, but they aren't available at Walmart and they aren't on sale for a buck!

Some Walmart's do carry Sclafani. Today they were $1.54. This store did have whole peeled Classico for $1.00 but no crushed/ground

Ditto on the Sclafani's. I just tried them for the first time, and they are quite nice. I can't get them locally, and normally use SMs, which also have a great strong, sweet tomato flavor, but are chunkier. The Sclafani's were great right out of the can. I didn't have to do anything except add spice. There are two different brands though. The one packed by Don Pepino is the right one.I use a small amount of fresh basil in my sauce, with a pinch of sugar and salt, and little dried garlic and oregano. It works for me. The only time I've had a sauce where the flavor went away or morphed into something I didn't like, there was olive oil in it. So for me, I don't do oil. The other thing I started doing, because the SMs are so expensive, is only making enough sauce for whatever I'm making, such as a half pie, or small pie. That way if I don't like the outcome, I haven't wrecked a whole can. I can separate some out, taste it and decide what to do with it. I freeze the rest and thaw it in the fridge whenever I need to use it. It's been working for me. Your recipe sounds good. I've tried the Walmart tomatoes, so I don't know what they taste like. I tend to think that you get what you pay for, but the Sclafanis are proof that a good sauce can be had without the $3.69 price tag of the SMs.

The Don Pepino Sclafani's are the right ones, they are New Jersey grown tomatoes, the company was recently acquired by B&G Foods. The other Sclafani, which is headquartered in CT., imports and sells Italian grown or produced products.

The Don Pepino Sclafani's are the right ones, they are New Jersey grown tomatoes, the company was recently acquired by B&G Foods. The other Sclafani, which is headquartered in CT., imports and sells Italian grown or produced products.

I ran into the othe Sclafani's at a grocery store in CT. Thanks to you and others on this forum, I knew to look at the back of the can for more info. I got the Don Pepino ones at a small Shop and Bag in PA. I will definitely research to see if I can get them locally. I though the pie was fantastic. Better than Redpack ro anything else I've tried that wad cheap or local, better than 6in1s, and much better price compared to the american clone SMs.